Blood and Burning

7

Downtown Santa Barbara was impossibly charming, with its Spanish architecture and pretty, tall trees that lined all the streets. The vibrant green leaves on the trees swayed in the gentle breeze, the same breeze that lightly blew my long black hair back, away from my face.

The sun would begin to set soon. I could tell Erin was nervous, with the way her eyes darted from person to person as we passed by. She was visibly tense. She was clutching the strap of her purse as if her life depended on it, and I supposed she probably thought it did.

I, on the other hand, ambled down the red brick sidewalk, a slight smile on my lips. God, I hadn’t realized just how badly I needed a change of pace. I hadn’t realized just how heavily the guilt and the anger and the grief weighed on me, like a f*****g sleep paralysis demon plopped in the center of my chest a year ago and hadn’t moved since. The resentment towards Conrad, the bitterness towards my sister, the way I had to avoid certain rooms within Albrecht because they housed memories I couldn’t bear to revisit—none of my problems could find me here.

Suddenly, I could breathe.

The uneasiness was still present somewhere, lurking in the depths of my subconscious, but downtown Santa Barbara was already proving to be an excellent distraction.

My demons would return with a vengeance, I was sure, the first time I had to face a vampire, knowing Van wouldn’t be there with me.

But for now? For now, we were shopping.

We’d wandered into a contemporary art museum, just about an hour before it closed. I tried to convince Erin to go inside a s*x shop, but she vehemently refused. We found a couple of cute little boutique stores. Erin bought a top, and I bought a refrigerator magnet and a candle.

We walked past restaurants and dive bars and more and more people began to fill the streets, and the sun sank lower and lower below the horizon. The streetlights came on, bathing us all in yellow.

I noticed something equal parts exciting and unnerving—vampires were already there. They were leaving shops, as if they’d been hanging out there all day.

Santa Barbara was crawling with supernaturals.

Soon, we came to the end of the street, and we both glanced to the right—more shops. We turned our heads to look to the left, and there stood a standalone building with a big, neon orange sign on the outside that read, “Club Monarch”. People were flocking to the tall, brown double doors, and they were mingling outside on the sidewalk. The music that was blasting inside got louder and louder as we neared.

I glanced up at Erin. She was frowning, but I expected her to be.

Club Monarch had no bouncers—no security at all, from what I could tell, and that alone was a green flag for vampire activity. Upon crossing the threshold, we found ourselves in a massive room, pulsing with moving bodies. The walls were two-stories high, there were flashing lights and there was a disco ball in the center of the tall ceiling. There was a live band on stage. They were playing a shitty cover of a Green Day song, and I was instantly sold on the place.

There were bars on either side of the massive space, and full walls of shelves of alcohol. I looped my arm through Erin’s as we made our way around the perimeter. We settled onto two of the only empty barstools we could find, and it didn’t take long for a bartender to take our drink orders—some kind of fruity thing for Erin, and water for me.

She leaned in close and asked, “You don’t drink?”

I shook my head. “No. Our line of work doesn’t mix well with alcohol.”

Understanding registered on Erin’s face, and she promptly waved the bartender back over. She changed her order to a Dr. Pepper.

She leaned back in towards me, closer this time, to lower her voice when she asked, “Why would a club this big not have metal detectors or something? Like, how did we just walk in with—”

“We don’t ask those kinds of questions, Erin,” I interrupted.

Her brow furrowed. The bartender set two plastic cups down in front of us, both with red straws. Erin took a big gulp of her soda.

“Just relax and keep an eye out,” I told her.

“For what?”

I turned around in my seat to watch the crowd, and Erin did the same. It didn’t take me long—there he was: a normal guy at first glance, just as unabashedly horny and trying just as hard as any other guy there, but I knew better.

I pointed him out to Erin. “What do you notice about this asshole?”

She chewed the inside of her cheek as she stared at him, her eyes slightly narrowed. “I…don’t know. What am I looking at?”

He was standing at a nearby table, leaning against it on his elbows. The girl that sat there with him was blissfully unaware that she was in danger. It was in the way he leaned towards her, his eyes returning over and over again to her throat, his lips slightly parted. He was practically drooling, but it wasn’t in a s****l way.

But more than anything, the color of his eyes was a dead giveaway.

“Look at his eyes,” I said to Erin. I took a sip of my water. “Look as closely as you can.”

“They’re…brown?”

I didn’t respond. I just waited.

“No, they’re like, really dark red? Is that what I’m looking at?”

“Looks that way, huh? Not to mention, he’s f*****g perfect. Like, look at that man.”

“Maybe he’s just really pretty. And has unique eyes.”

“No.” I took another sip of my water. “You’ll learn how to tell what’s what. Looking at their eyes is the easiest way. They’ll be way-too-bright green, or way-too-bright blue, f*****g gold, or,” I motioned towards the guy, who now had his face buried in the female’s neck, and his arms snaked around her waist, “whatever this guy has. Too dark for blood red. Maybe rust?”

Erin didn’t respond. Her eyes were darting around now, searching for signs from everyone around us that they might not be what they appear to be.

“They’re all perfect and beautiful and charming as hell,” I continued. “They are designed to draw us in.”

“What about those two?” Erin asked, as she pointed to a male and a female, standing on the fringe of the mass of moving bodies in the center of the room, off to the left near the door.

They were just watching. The male stood with his feet apart, and his arms crossed over his broad chest. The female stood with a hand on her slim hip. They both had those unnerving highlighter green eyes. Their eyes didn’t quite glow, but they might as well have been each time the bright, flashing lights passed over their faces.

I made eye contact with the female, and I c****d my head to the side slightly. Her strange gaze didn’t linger on me—I wasn’t what she was looking for.

“Why are there so many of them here?” Erin asked.

“In big cities like this, they hang out in populated places,” I explained. “Nightclubs, downtown areas, because there’s plenty of food to go around. Common practice.”

Suddenly, my skin prickled and I swore I felt someone breathing against the back of my neck. I whirled around in my seat so fast I had to grip the edge of the counter to keep myself upright.

“What is wrong with you?” Erin asked.

All three of the bartenders gave me funny looks.

“Nothing.” I glanced around, puzzled.

Uneasiness quickly swept back in—my demons had indeed returned, I supposed. To be surrounded by vampires for the first time in a year was nerve-wracking. I took a deep breath and I focused on the feeling of the rough leather against both of my thighs, of my trusty blades in their holsters beneath my skirt. I gripped my plastic cup of water with both hands.

Everything was okay.

But holy s**t, Erin was right—we were surrounded. I felt sweat beading on my forehead.

I wiped my forehead with the back of my forearm and then I threw back the last of the water in my cup before I set it down on the bar. My unease was not ebbing. In fact, I felt a little off. Still, I stood up, and I grabbed Erin’s hand. She took one last swig of her Dr. Pepper before we headed out into the crowd of people. We squeezed our way through the throng, till we found a good spot with a decent-enough view of the band. Now they were playing a shitty cover of an Escape the Fate song.

Erin pulled her hand out of mine, but the same second that she did, panic surged through me, and I yanked it back. I caught her eye briefly, and concern flitted across her features. I clung to her, to the sense of familiarity that she provided, no matter how slight. There were moving bodies everywhere, and I was shorter than most of them. The strange sense of dread that was growing and twisting in my gut was steadily building, and my heart was thumping wildly in my chest.

What the f**k?

Suddenly, I heard an indecipherable whisper, barely audible but louder than the bass and the pounding drums, and I whirled around, pulling Erin with me. I didn’t see anybody who seemed concerned with me. Everyone was dancing, smiles on their faces, some were singing along with the man wailing into the microphone on stage.

Erin’s grip on my hand tightened, and I thought I heard her speak, but there were those whispers again. I pressed my free hand to my temple and squeezed my eyes shut. My entire body was screaming for me to run, and I knew better than to ignore my gut, but still I tried my damndest to convince myself it was just nerves.

That had to be it.

It was just nerves. I was surrounded by vampires, but I was without Van.

“I’m fine,” I said aloud.

“What?” Erin shouted over the music.

“I’m fine,” I repeated, louder this time.

It was just nerves.

Just nerves.

Just nerves.